1808.] N.W.Himalaya. 3 



of the more Northern regions of the N. W. Himalaya — as well as 

 those of the eastern provinces of Bengal — from Dr. Jerdon 's work 

 is greatly to be regretted. It is not strictly correct that the birds of 

 Western Tibet* and Kashmir have been treated in this manner • 

 for not only are most of these provinces situated to the South of 

 the river Indus, and within the limits of our Indian empire, but 

 the larger number of the birds, which inhabit these regions in 

 summer, are, during the winter, visitors of Northern India proper ; 

 or at least of the lower ranges of the Indian or Southern slopes 

 of the Himalaya mountains. It is true that the birds of these 

 provinces in some respects represent a distinct facies, as compared 

 with the tropical character of the Indian fauna generally, but this is 

 not sufficient ground for supposing that they are not birds of India. 

 For if the validity of this opinion be admitted, the entire fauna of 

 Northern Nepal and nearly of the whole of Sikkim must be excluded 

 from the Indian fauna. 



On the contrary, the affinities and relations of the various facies in 

 a fauna are entitled to the special care of naturalists, because these 

 relations are of the highest importance for the study of the geographical 

 distribution, not only of single species, but more properly of the 

 character of the different zoological provinces of our globe. Besides 

 this, the comparison of two or more neighbouring facies of tho 

 fauna very often facilitates the knowledge of the species themselves in 

 so far as they shew us, whether certain variations may be considered 

 sufficient to warrant those distinctions, upon which we generally base 

 our ' species.' 



In many cases the comparison of Indian birds with so called represen- 

 tative species in Western Asia and Europe is still a great desideratum, 

 although these comparisons may prove to be in favour of several 

 identifications. I would, for instance, only call to mind our Tartar 

 moena or rupestris, and the common T. auritus, Corvus tibetanus and 

 C. corax, Turdus Euttoni and T. viscivorus, Pica hotanensis and 

 P. candata, Regulus Hymalayanus and R. crislatus, and others. For 

 my own part I believe many of these species to be respectively identical. 

 To return to our present subject,— the avi-fauna of the Sutlej valley 



# Including Spiti and Lahul, which are British provinces. 



